Couple spends first home deposit on dog's life-saving surgery

When sausage dog Coco suffered a slipped disc and suddenly lost the use of her back legs, owners Josie and Jessica Ayres knew they would do anything to help their four-legged friend.

Even if it meant spending their first home deposit on a gruelling £5,200 ($9,600AUD) surgery.

Josie, 26 was reduced to tears when she called her wife Jessica, 25, telling her she had rushed Coco — the oldest of their three pet sausage dogs — to their local vet in Surrey.

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Jessica told TYLA, the pair became concerned about Coco's condition, when they noticed her "personality quietened down."

"Normally when you'd walk in she would jump up at you, but instead she was just wagging her tail and not jumping up."

Five-year-old Coco was diagnosed with inter-vertebral disc disease (IVDD) and required immediate surgery, or would need to be put down.

Coco, who is the mother to the couple's two other sausage dogs, Bear and Piglet, was struck with extreme pain as her spine lost it's "sponginess" causing her discs to slip out of place.

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The condition is common to Dachshunds, known for their comically elongated spines.

The couple used a third of the £17,000 ($31,500 AUD) deposit that they had been saving up to purchase their first home together.

Jessica said: "I've had a lot of people tell me I'm crazy, but we just didn't have the heart not [to], not having the operation wasn't even a question for us."

The couple became the pup's parents when she was eight weeks old, and recently welcomed her two new babies into their family.

"Coco is not only a huge part of our family but she has two pups herself (Piglet and Baby Bear) whom both miss their mummy," the couple wrote on their GoFundMe campaign.

"Putting her down is not an option for us. Anyone who knows us will know the love we and her pups have for Coco, we are lost without her."

Coco endured a two-hour operation and underwent massage therapy help with her legs movement again. 

The couple noted she has "at least six months" of recovery ahead of her, but is "getting there one step at a time."

Josie and Jessica are now living with Josie's parents for the next six months to save up the deposit they spent on Coco's surgery.

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